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MediaFile monitors the future of news, evolution of media, and how these changes affect the public.Wed, 22 May 2019 06:46:16 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.10https://i0.wp.com/www.mediafiledc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/cropped-MF_BG.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1MediaFilehttps://www.mediafiledc.com
3232147581167Long Time No See #04 – The Opioid Crisis, Part 1https://www.mediafiledc.com/long-time-no-see-04-the-opioid-crisis-part-1/
https://www.mediafiledc.com/long-time-no-see-04-the-opioid-crisis-part-1/#respondWed, 22 May 2019 04:01:31 +0000http://www.mediafiledc.com/?p=7644When we think about the people most afflicted by the American opioid epidemic, we often think of white, rural communities. But new evidence suggests that most of the reporting and discussion around opioids is overlooking communities of color that are struggling with addiction. In the

]]>When we think about the people most afflicted by the American opioid epidemic, we often think of white, rural communities. But new evidence suggests that most of the reporting and discussion around opioids is overlooking communities of color that are struggling with addiction.

In the first of two episodes investigating the contours of the opioid epidemic, Michael interviews Dr. Edwin Chapman, an expert on addiction treatment who has been helping patients here in Washington, D.C. for 20 years. Dr. Chapman offers insight into the African-American communities that are at the heart of the crisis, as well as insight into how we can successfully help those at the heart of the epidemic.

The music in this pod was created by Greenss. If you like this episode of Long Time, No See, leave a rating, subscribe to the show, and keep listening. If you have recommendations for future topics or guests, you can email the host at mkohler@mediafiledc.com. If you would like to donate to MediaFile, the student journalists who power this pod, go to mediafiledc.com/donate.

]]>https://www.mediafiledc.com/long-time-no-see-04-the-opioid-crisis-part-1/feed/07644Reporter’s Home and Office Raided by Police After Refusing to Reveal His Sourcehttps://www.mediafiledc.com/reporters-home-and-office-raided-by-police-after-refusing-to-reveal-his-source/
https://www.mediafiledc.com/reporters-home-and-office-raided-by-police-after-refusing-to-reveal-his-source/#respondMon, 13 May 2019 04:01:02 +0000http://www.mediafiledc.com/?p=7622Two weeks after he refused to reveal a confidential source to authorities, freelance journalist Bryan Carmody found himself in handcuffs for six hours while San Francisco police officers raided his home. Officers were searching for a confidential police report that Carmody had in his possession,

]]>Two weeks after he refused to reveal a confidential source to authorities, freelance journalist Bryan Carmody found himself in handcuffs for six hours while San Francisco police officers raided his home.

Officers were searching for a confidential police report that Carmody had in his possession, as well as any information on the source that provided Carmody with the document.

The police report contains information on the unexpected death of San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi. Carmody had provided the report to local news stations along with other information related to Adachi’s death in February. Officers eventually found the report in a locked safe during a subsequent raid on Carmody’s home, after which Carmody was taken in for questioning.

“I knew what they wanted,” he said to The Los Angeles Times. “They wanted the name.” Despite being held in custody by the San Francisco Police Department, Carmody vowed to protect the identity of his source.

My home and business were raided by the SFPD and the FBI today. This is part of a campaign to make me divulge a confidential source. I will not. https://t.co/qa7uNjy4wy

The raid was approved as part of a criminal investigation into potential obstruction of justice and illegal distribution of a confidential police report. The investigators’ warrant stated they were on the hunt for “stolen or embezzled property.”

“There’s only two people on this planet who know who leaked this report — me and the guy who leaked it,” Carmody said.

Carmody runs a small stringer operation providing Bay Area news tips to national outlets such as CBS, Fox News and CNBC. His office employed a handful of other journalists, all of whose electronics, equipment and documents were seized by police for further investigation.

Journalists and press advocates rallied behind Carmody as the news broke over the weekend. Some characterized the incident as an intimidation effort by police, highlighting that the officers came heavily armed and used a sledgehammer to smash open Carmondy’s front gate as he slept upstairs.

Let me get this straight, San Francisco police raided the home of a journalist to find out who in the police department leaked a copy of the police report into Jeff Adachi's death. https://t.co/7AnQ9poP0k

]]>https://www.mediafiledc.com/reporters-home-and-office-raided-by-police-after-refusing-to-reveal-his-source/feed/07622Long Time No See #03 – War, Refugees and Reporting in Syriahttps://www.mediafiledc.com/long-time-no-see-03-war-refugees-and-reporting-in-syria/
https://www.mediafiledc.com/long-time-no-see-03-war-refugees-and-reporting-in-syria/#respondTue, 07 May 2019 04:01:39 +0000http://www.mediafiledc.com/?p=7618It’s been eight years since the start of the civil war in Syria. Since then, we’ve seen the rise and fall of ISIS, proxy struggles between world powers, and history’s largest refugee crisis. In this episode, Michael sits down with Chris Boian, spokesperson for the

It’s been eight years since the start of the civil war in Syria. Since then, we’ve seen the rise and fall of ISIS, proxy struggles between world powers, and history’s largest refugee crisis.

In this episode, Michael sits down with Chris Boian, spokesperson for the United Nations Refugee Agency here in Washington, who reflects on the past eight years of conflict with a focus on media coverage. Boian also speaks about the future of Syria, and the monumental task of resettling refugees back into their home country. Michael is joined later by MediaFile International Editor Shayna Greene, who talks about using media and on the ground journalism to change perceptions about Syria here in the US.

The music in this pod was provided by Greenss. If you like this episode of Long Time, No See, leave a rating, subscribe to the show, and keep listening. If you have recommendations for future topics or guests, you can email the host at mkohler@mediafiledc.com. If you would like to donate to MediaFile, the student journalists who power this pod, go to mediafiledc.com/donate.

]]>https://www.mediafiledc.com/long-time-no-see-03-war-refugees-and-reporting-in-syria/feed/07618Mark Halperin Attempts To Stage A #MeToo Comebackhttps://www.mediafiledc.com/mark-halperin-attempts-to-stage-a-metoo-comeback/
https://www.mediafiledc.com/mark-halperin-attempts-to-stage-a-metoo-comeback/#respondMon, 06 May 2019 04:01:18 +0000http://www.mediafiledc.com/?p=7566Mark Halperin, veteran journalist accused of sexually harassing several women during his time as political director at ABC News, has been quietly attempting to step back into the industry after years of silence. Last month Halperin began tweeting again after a nearly two-year hiatus. On

Last month Halperin began tweeting again after a nearly two-year hiatus. On October 27, 2017, he tweeted a statement taking responsibility and apologizing for the pain he caused his female coworkers. He did not tweet again until April 10, 2019.

Halperin also launched “Mark Halperin’s Wide World of News” in April, a political news blog featuring his commentary on timely topics. The Daily Beastpointed out that this format is quite similar to Halperin’s “The Note,” which he wrote during his time at ABC.

Halperin is not on his own, either. CNN personality and SiriusXM radio host Michael Smerconish has given a platform to the disgraced journalist, featuring him on his show three times in the past month.

Though his first appearance with Smerconish began with an apology, Halperin went on to discuss his thoughts on the 2020 race in a manner described by Vox as a “series of sexist assessments and omissions that were the hallmark of his commentary for many years.” He later had to apologize for calling Joe Biden’s inappropriate conduct toward women a “distraction” during the show.

In addition to Smerconish, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” seem to be supporting Halperin’s return to the spotlight. Before he was fired, Halperin regularly appeared on the program.

The Daily Beastreported that the co-hosts had previously planned to collaborate with Halperin on an online midterms analysis program prior to the 2018 elections that was “scrapped” by the network. Scarborough and Brzezinski did not seek prior approval for the project.

MSNBC was surprised again when, on April 5, Brzezinski gave positive airtime to Halperin’s personal apologies and political comments on Smerconish’s radio show. MSNBC executives were not told in advance that the sensitive segment on Halperin would air and The Daily Beast piece claimed they were “not happy about it.”

The Daily Beast also reported that Halperin had been sniffing around other professional opportunities, calling the top editor at The Hill and dining with Kellyanne Conway and TiVo Chief Executive Tom Rogers.

The women who accused Halperin of harassment and misconduct are speaking out against his attempted comeback. One of the women, Lara Setrakian, asserted that Halperin has “proven himself unfit for leadership in our industry and a questionable narrator of the national conversation.”

Another, attorney Dianna Goldberg, took issue with both Halperin’s attempts to break back into professional journalism and the help he is receiving from his former colleagues: “It troubles me that he is more concerned with rehabilitating his career than demonstrating any semblance of understanding the gravity of the harm he caused so many women. And the fact that his friends in broadcast are enabling this effort is appalling.”

Finally, accuser Eleanor McManus posed a question to the industry: “Halperin used his status as a powerful journalist to victimize women, so why should he have that power again?”

]]>https://www.mediafiledc.com/mark-halperin-attempts-to-stage-a-metoo-comeback/feed/07566Facebook Invites Reporters to See European Anti-Fake News Operationhttps://www.mediafiledc.com/facebook-invites-reporters-to-see-european-anti-fake-news-operation/
https://www.mediafiledc.com/facebook-invites-reporters-to-see-european-anti-fake-news-operation/#respondMon, 06 May 2019 04:01:01 +0000http://www.mediafiledc.com/?p=7573A group of 12 reporters recently visited Facebook’s European headquarters to meet their team dedicated to combating fake-news and misinformation before this month’s European Parliamentary elections. Journalists from The New York Times, The Guardian, Politico and more provided detailed reporting of the 40 person team monitoring

]]>A group of 12 reporters recently visited Facebook’s European headquarters to meet their team dedicated to combating fake-news and misinformation before this month’s European Parliamentary elections. Journalists from The New York Times, The Guardian, Politico and more provided detailed reporting of the 40 person team monitoring for content across 24 languages that violates Facebook’s rules.

The effort by Facebook mirrors their operation to fight the scourge of fake news during the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. It also comes after EU regulators demanded that internet giants like Facebook and Twitter play more of a self-regulating role to keep election information on their platforms accurate. Facebook has established a similar misinformation “war room” in Singapore to monitor the coming elections in India, where fake news on their WhatsApp platform is plaguing the world’s largest democracy.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, was quoted as saying, “we are fundamentally dealing with a security challenge. There are a set of actors that want to manipulate public debate,” during the meeting with journalists.

Convincing an increasingly skeptical press that Facebook can be a responsible news aggregator and data manager seems to be a top priority for the company in their newest public relations push.

Bowing to these pressures, Facebook made the decision last week to ban seven figures who spread dangerous misinformation, including Alex Jones, Louis Farrakhan, Laura Loomer and others, as part of their larger campaign to calm the firestorm. But these bans are mostly symbolic compared to the scale of issues Facebook faces with misinformation and data privacy.

Facebook banned several "dangerous" high-profile personalities from its social media platforms Thursday, becoming the latest tech company to officially declare them persona non grata.https://t.co/GfP3mtdMxN

Recent polls show that a majority of Americans now have little trust in the platform after several scandals related to election interference and user privacy chipped away at the social media giant’s credibility. Just last week, researchers revealed that WhatsApp’s users in Spain were “flooded” with fake news and hateful memes leading up to the April 28th Spanish election.

But Facebook remains hopeful that their efforts can start to turn the tide of discontent.

“At the end of the day, this isn’t just about building some new products. It’s a major shift in how we run this company,” said Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg at last week’s F8 developer conference.

]]>https://www.mediafiledc.com/facebook-invites-reporters-to-see-european-anti-fake-news-operation/feed/07573New Editorial Board Announced for 2019-2020https://www.mediafiledc.com/new-editorial-board-announced-for-2019-2020/
https://www.mediafiledc.com/new-editorial-board-announced-for-2019-2020/#respondMon, 06 May 2019 04:00:56 +0000http://www.mediafiledc.com/?p=7588A new year of MediaFile means a new Editorial Board.

]]>MediaFile is excited to announce the incoming Editorial Board for the 2019-2020 year, effective May 6th, 2019. While some old and some new, all members of our incoming board will be incredible assets as MediaFile heads into its fourth year. The outgoing board members will aid in bringing MediaFile’s editorial vision to life during the transition process.

Celine Castronuovo will be taking the lead as MediaFile’s new Editor-in-Chief. Celine joined the international staff during her freshman year and served as the section’s co-editor during the 2018-2019 year. Celine has helped grow the section during her time as editor and has conducted international interviews on press freedom and coverage of human rights. In the coming year, she will be focusing on expanding MediaFile’s reach on George Washington University’s campus, as well as campuses across the country, while continuing to help the publication produce quality content.

Rob Cline, MediaFile’s outgoing Editor-in-Chief, will become our Editor-at-Large, working closely with writers and editors on stories, with a specific focus on the politics section. During Rob’s time as Editor-in-Chief, they helped execute a branding and website redesign, streamlined the Technology and Business sections into the Industry section, launched MediaFile on Apple News and helped introduce our newest podcast series, Long Time No See. We are excited that Rob will be staying on our editorial board and are confident that they will continue to help publish unique stories that fulfill the core mission of MediaFile.

Avi Bajpai will be our new Politics Editor, while also taking on a role as Lead Writer for the section so he can continue to provide his insightful analysis. Over the past year, Avi has produced clear and sharp reporting on media coverage of the Mueller Report, the Trump Administration and how the ever-changing political sphere is impacting our evolving media world. We are looking forward to seeing the great things he will continue to do for the section in this new role.

Shayna Greene will be staying on as International Editor, where she previously served as co-editor alongside Celine. Shayna has consistently provided exceptional guidance over the section, helping to grow MediaFile’s monthly World News You Missed series and promoting other quality content on international press freedom. We know she will continue to be a valuable member of our team and are excited to see her make the section even better in the coming year.

Lars Erik Schonander will be stepping up as Industry Editor. Lars has served as a writer for the international section over the past couple of years. He has proven to be a talented writer, providing quality analysis on media censorship and international coverage of demonstrations and political elections from Venezuela to Rwanda. We are confident that he will put his vast knowledge and writing skills to good use as he guides over the industry section.

George Bowles will stay on as MediaFile’s Opinions Editor. George took on the role of managing the opinions section this semester after serving as our copy editor for the first half of the 2018-2019 year. In their time in this role thus far, George has helped promote well-researched, quality arguments from our opinions writers and we look forward to seeing them continue to build the section in the coming year.

Amy Patronella will be continuing her role as MediaFile’s Copy Editor. Since joining the team this semester, Amy has consistently brought her diligence and sharp eye for detail when editing every story we publish. We know she will continue to be a phenomenal and essential asset to our team.

Last but certainly not least, Michael Kohler will continue as Podcast Director for MediaFile’s newest show, Long Time No See. Michael pitched and built this podcast this past year and has already provided engaging interviews with experts in various fields on stories that have may have fallen out of the media spotlight, but still deserve attention nonetheless. We are excited to see how this project will continue to grow in the coming year with Michael at the helm.

Along with our new Editorial Board, Julian Strachan will continue in his role as Business Director and Samantha Cookinham will remain our Communications Director.

As we usher in a new era of MediaFile, we would also like to give our thanks to the old section editors. MediaFile is only as strong as its staff, and the 2018-2019 year has been an incredible one. MediaFile’s third year was successful as it was because of the editors’ hard work. We have been a great team that consistently put out quality, meaningful content and we are excited to see what our fourth year holds.

]]>https://www.mediafiledc.com/new-editorial-board-announced-for-2019-2020/feed/07588Why Teen Fashion Magazines Started Taking Their Readers Seriouslyhttps://www.mediafiledc.com/why-teen-fashion-magazines-started-taking-their-readers-seriously/
https://www.mediafiledc.com/why-teen-fashion-magazines-started-taking-their-readers-seriously/#respondMon, 06 May 2019 04:00:56 +0000http://www.mediafiledc.com/?p=7580Teen Vogue wants its readers to know that they are a force to be reckoned with. Since the 2016 election, fashion magazines marketed toward young women like Teen Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire have stepped up their politics coverage. It is not a coincidence. Younger

]]>Teen Vogue wants its readers to know that they are a force to be reckoned with. Since the 2016 election, fashion magazines marketed toward young women like Teen Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire have stepped up their politics coverage. It is not a coincidence.

Younger generations have been a significant force behind the resistance to Donald Trump. From the March for Our Lives to the climate strikes to the midterm elections, young women have been leading every step of the way and editors realized that they had some catching up to do.

Elaine Welteroth, the editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue through 2017, took over the publication in 2016 at just 29. She was the second black woman to edit the magazine and the youngest editor-in-chief ever at a Conde Nast publication. Welteroth’s tenure was about embracing what many older generations see as a contradiction. Women’s magazines now give their readers insightful political coverage sandwiched between a makeup tutorial and a fashion editorial.

One piece in particular called “Donald Trump is Gaslighting America” went viral after the election. Established media figures like Dan Rather were pleasantly surprised. Rather tweeted a link to the article and said “Teen Vogue may be an unlikely source for a detailed look at “Gaslighting” + Donald Trump, but there you have it…”

These supposed contradictions have become the new norm as more young female politicians get elected. Teen Vogue ran a piece about how Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) wore hoop earrings and red lipstick to celebrate her Latina heritage. At the bottom, the article recommends red lipsticks and hoop earrings for readers to buy. But Welteroth knows that her readers deserve both lipstick and policy analysis. That is why Lucy Diavolo wrote an op-ed for Teen Vogue called “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Said Climate Change and Immigration Are Connected — Here’s Why She’s Right.”

This rings especially true when compared to media targeted at Gen Z women. For example, GQ describes itself as “Men’s Fashion, Style, Grooming, Fitness, Lifestyle, News, & Politics.” Even Playboy, a magazine that exists to objectify women, is famous for its political coverage. Why should Dan Rather be surprised that substantive political coverage is coming from Teen Vogue when it has been coming from Playboy for generations?

Kelly and Corcione’s articles show how far teen fashion magazines have come. In today’s media landscape it is a deeply radical idea that young women deserve to learn about leftist politics. It is even more radical to place these ideas in tandem with the top hairstyles for the summer.

]]>https://www.mediafiledc.com/why-teen-fashion-magazines-started-taking-their-readers-seriously/feed/07580Social Media: The Front Lines of International Scandal and Crimehttps://www.mediafiledc.com/social-media-the-front-lines-of-international-scandal-and-crime/
https://www.mediafiledc.com/social-media-the-front-lines-of-international-scandal-and-crime/#respondMon, 06 May 2019 04:00:27 +0000http://www.mediafiledc.com/?p=7600The internet and social media are being used as both battlegrounds for activism and cesspools of criminal activity with little to no regulation.

]]>The beginning of May was marked by an explosion of international developments as long-time secret online actors based in Russia, Germany and the Middle East were uncovered.

According to the BBC, the identity of the anti-Kremlin troll, StalinGulag, was revealed. The man behind the anti-Kremlin campaign, Alexander Gorbunov, has 300,000 followers on the Russian social media platform, Telegram, and millions of followers on Twitter.

Since 2013, Gorbunov has critiqued the Russian government using an online alias. Fearing harm to his family, however, he recently revealed his identity. The BBC reported that police had visited the apartment of Gorbunov’s elderly mother the first week of May. Police told her that someone made a fake bomb threat from her phone. Other relatives of Gorbunov have also been approached by Russian police, forcing StalinGulag to trade anonymity for protection.

Gorbunov has been called “the most important political columnist in Russia” by one of Russia’s biggest opposition leaders, Alexei Navalny. Through the StalinGulag social media accounts, Gorbunov has written about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visiting Russia, the recent Ukrainian presidential elections, the treatment of HIV positive youth in Siberia and a Russian military coup in Sudan.

“I just wanted to write,” he said to BBC. “My computer and the internet meant I could follow what was going on in the rest of the world… I’ve always been interested in politics.”

Online identities were also revealed in Germany, where police arrested three men suspected of running the second largest illegal market on the dark web, a corner of the internet inaccessible to mainstream web-consumers. The operation was called “Wall Street Market” and used cryptocurrency to sell “illegal drugs, stolen data and malicious software.”

German police on Friday arrested three men as part of an international investigation into the illegal online operation named "Wall Street Market," which was shut down on Thursday-https://t.co/rhd8ydZnAt

The arrest was made in partnership with Dutch police and Europol, which recently worked with the French police to take down a similar dark web operation known as Valhalla Marketplace.

After busting the “Wall Street Market” in Germany, authorities found more than €550,000, or $615,000 USD in cash and more than €1 million, or $1,118,245 USD in the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Monero. The men running the online market received two to six percent of the sales made to more than 1.1 million accounts. Products included everything from cocaine to expensive cars to stolen data.

The three operators arrested in Germany were not the only ones using the dark web to make a profit. Police discovered that more than 5,400 sellers could be found from all over Europe.

While some people use the hidden, remote parts of the internet to conduct illegal business, others use Facebook. According to the BBC, traffickers who have stolen antiquities from Syria and Iraq in the wake of ISIS’ retreat, are using Facebook to sell these artifacts to buyers in Turkey.

Facebook took down at least 49 of these groups after the BBC conducted an investigation into the smuggling rings. BBC was aided by Professor Amr al-Azm, an archaeologist from Syria who currently teaches at Shawnee State University in Ohio. Amr al-Azm combed through hundreds of Facebook groups that contain thousands of members over the course of two years and has found people trying to sell treasures such as a sculpture from the ancient site of Palmyra and Roman mosaics.

“What we’ve seen is an explosion of sites and users on Facebook,” said Amr al-Azm to BBC. “It’s transnational and Facebook is essentially allowing this to happen on its watch.”

Not only are these Facebook groups used to sell stolen items but they also give smugglers advice on how to dig up sites without getting caught or being buried alive while excavating. The BBC also found that buyers use Facebook to request items for traffickers to steal. Moreover, the BBC approximates that about 70 percent of all the items coming out of Syria are fakes or copies.

Though Facebook has taken a stand against illegal activity on the platform and has removed dozens of groups, Professor Amr al-Azm says he is still seeing trafficking not only from Syria but from groups based all over the world.

As individuals continue to gain expertise on how to manipulate the mostly unregulated internet, vigilantism, scandal and crime will also continue to define the international stage.

]]>Last Thursday the Department of Justice released a redacted copy of the report prepared by Special Counsel Robert Mueller detailing the findings of his nearly two-year long investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Among major revelations surrounding the extent of Russian election interference and efforts by President Donald Trump to impede the investigation, the report also revealed that Press Secretary Sarah Sanders privately admitted to misleading reporters during a press conference on May 10, 2017.

Sanders, who had been tasked with defending Trump’s decision to fire then-FBI Director James Comey the day before, claimed: “the rank and file of the FBI had lost confidence in their director.” When pushed to substantiate her claim, Sanders said the White House had heard disapproval of Comey from “countless members of the FBI.”

During an interview with the FBI in July 2018 however, Sanders told investigators her reference to “countless” sources within the agency was a “slip of the tongue,” even though she repeated the claim during another press briefing one day later. The report also states that Sanders had recalled her statement “was not founded on anything.”

On Friday, Sanders refused to publicly acknowledge her admission to FBI investigators during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

Asked why she would not acknowledge she had misled reporters, Sanders said she had mistakenly used the word “countless,” but stood by her claim that some members of the FBI had communicated their disapproval of Comey to the White House.

“If you look at what’s in quotations from me…it’s that it was ‘in the heat of moment,’ meaning that it wasn’t a scripted talking point. I’m sorry that I wasn’t a robot like the Democrat Party,” she added.

During an appearance on CNN last Thursday, American Urban Radio Networks’ White House correspondent April Ryan criticized Sanders for “outright” lying and said she did not have “any credibility left.”

Ryan also tweeted that “the stakes [were] too high” for Sanders to be “making up stories and lying from the White House podium.”

NBC News opinion contributor Kurt Bardella asked if reporters should trust “any statement [Sanders] gives ever again” in an op-ed published Thursday. Bardella added that Sanders has become “America’s main minister of propaganda” and wrote that “degrading the White House podium and relegating it to a propaganda pulpit smacks of a dictatorship, not a free and open society.”

Others, like Michael Barbaro, host of The New York Times’ “The Daily” podcast, asked if reporters should treat Sanders differently in light of the Mueller report’s revelation. “Does [the press] rely on her less? Remind listeners/readers/viewers she is a proven dissembler every time we quote her?” Barbaro tweeted.

Daniel Dale, a Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star, said Sanders’ lack of credibility had already been established since she had been “a liar and deceiver from the start.”

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell expressed little hope that reporters would change how they approached Sanders’ increasingly infrequent press conferences, tweeting that “the press has demonstrated zero capacity to deal with Sarah Sanders” and would not “adjust in any way.”

In January, Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote that Sanders’ press briefings were “exercises in futility [and] lying,” but nonetheless defended them as “necessary.” Sullivan said despite the “temptation” to discontinue the briefings, they were valuable “in showing reporters questioning power, in applying pressure, and in eliciting answers of some kind — even if those answers soon prove to be untrue.”

In January 2017, just a few days after Trump’s inauguration, New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen advised news organizations to pull their correspondents from press conferences and send interns in their place.

Rosen added that in the face of the Trump administration’s efforts to vilify the press, reporters had to “become less predictable” and “stop functioning as hate object[s].”

“Rather: change the terms of this relationship. Make yourself more elusive. In the theater of resentment where you play such a crucial part, relinquish that part,” he said.

In an interview with MediaFile, Rosen said he was not surprised Sanders had refused to acknowledge her admission to investigators that her remarks were baseless.

“The Trump government has set itself against the very idea of ‘the public record,’” Rosen said. “If there’s a strategy it’s to raise the psychological cost for supporters of allowing any facts established by Mueller to register as true.

Rosen also reiterated his call for veteran White House correspondents to stop participating in press briefings and focus on other stories.

“Interns [should] hold the place until under a new government the briefing can perhaps return,” he said.

]]>Andrew Yang is solidifying his place as the tech-focused, dark horse candidate of the 2020 democratic primaries, often earning much applause and shouts of “secure the bag” and “math.”

On April 15th, 2019 Yang held a rally in Washington, D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial. Supporters waited just outside the event handing out Andrew Yang posters that read “Yang Gang.”

https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1117969627072667648

His speech focused on answering the question: “Why is Donald Trump President?” Yang detailed how automation and economic anxiety were the primary factors that led voters to elect President Trump.

Yang then name-dropped various economists who stated that GDP is not the greatest way to measure an economy when a member of the crowd shouted, “Google Henry George,”highlighting the “nerdy” nature of his audience, many of whom zealously follow Yang’s campaign.

Henry George for reference, is an obscure economist from the 19th century whose focus was on inequality and land distribution. Today, one of Henry George’s ideas, land value taxes, are seen by some as a way to reduce income inequality in the United States caused by land ownership.

Yang also touched on automation during the D.C. rally. He started by talking about how the most common worker works in retail, and the effects that automation could have on their lives. He then detailed how truck drivers are the most common worker in 29 states and pondered aloud the impact of competition with driverless cars.

Yang said that while considering his run, he had visited D.C. and was surprised by the lack of consideration surrounding automation among many politicians. He repeated a line to the crowd, asserting that worker retraining worked 0-15 percent of the time, and responded, “we will get better.”

Yang’s tone ranged from speaking on technocratic policy to worrying about the future of American jobs due to automation.

Other journalists have noted how Yang’s tone on the issues represents something distinct in the Democratic primary, beyond his technical background and eclectic audience.

Jacob Siegel wrote forTablet that Andrew Yang is the first “post-liberal candidate” due to the ways he aims to reform the American political economy in the face of automation. He writes that Yang’s main platform points is not just the more widely-reported freedom dividend (1000 dollars a month of universal basic income) – he seeks to end the culture war as well. His theory is that by providing stable healthcare and income to all of America, perhaps the current tensions in American culture can be placated.

Another Tablet columnist,Wesley Yang (no relation to Andrew Yang), contributed similar commentary about Yang after the D.C. event.

Yang is making a counter-intuitive bet on where the electorate is that may or may not pan out, but if and only if he's right, he won't need the establishment.

The Verge also commented on the post-liberalism that Yang seems to represent. Their title stated, “Andrew Yang Is The Candidate For The End Of The World.” Similarly, the Tablet piece focused on his drive to solve a specific problem, in this case, the creation of an “underclass” due to the rise of automation.

Futurism also took this tone when covering Yang in a recent article. The piece added that Yang believes his choice is to either come up with a solution or let society fall apart.

Andrew Yang’s world view represents a post-liberal path that the Democratic Party could embrace, an oddity compared to the political ideologies offered by the other 2020 candidates.